When Microsoft announced a year ago that it had decided to rip the next-generation Windows File System from Longhorn, many company watchers wrote off the feature as little more than vaporware. But it seems Microsoft didn't simply shelve WinFS. According to sources close to the company, Microsoft just last week put the finishing touches on the first beta release of WinFS. And the company is moving ahead with plans to back-port the WinFS technology to Windows XP.

WinFS is not a filesystem any more. It was originally intended to be one, and all of the early marketing materials said id was one. This is why the fact that it is not a filesystem needs to be pointed out repeatedly - it was originally intended to be one.